Greenberg said he was "endlessly grateful" to his radio partner of 18 years but said it was time to find a new ESPN project. Greenberg will begin a new morning TV show that features Michelle Beadle and Jalen Rose and is set to debut in the spring, once ESPN completes construction on a new studio in Manhattan.

Late last week, the Northwestern alum said his show still needed a name. Hours later Greenberg texted with an update. The show will be called: "Get up."

"It's a terrific title because it can mean a lot of different things — not just 'wake up' but 'let's get going and be the best we can be today,'" he wrote. "Get up with Greeny and Beadle and Jalen. It's perfect."

More from our Nov. 10 conversation with Greenberg.

How are you doing?

I can't remember a time when I was doing much better. Things are going great, Northwestern is ranked in men's basketball and football. I can't think of a better time to be alive.

Your Friday show ended with Trey Wingo dropping the mic after taking the One Chip Challenge. You have one week left before you drop the mic. Do you have a plan for how you want it to end?

I absolutely do not. I've never scripted anything, in 18 years. I do write a little open to our show, the first 15 seconds. Otherwise everything comes from the heart, and that's what I plan to do that day. There isn't anything I could say that will appropriately sum up what these 18 years have meant to me. What they've done for my life, what they've given my family the opportunity to do. I'll go in there and whatever sort of jumps into my head, that's what'll come out of my mouth.

I always say we're not curing cancer, we're not pulling people out of burning buildings, but if we've made a tiny difference in people's lives, then that's more than we ever imagined we'd be capable of doing.

Tiger Woods was among those recording a video message. Do you get the sense that many people are just bummed? Like they're just so used to having you guys on the air in the morning as part of their routine and they're just like, "What the hell am I gonna do now?"

I'm so pleased that people have enjoyed it. At least speaking for me, I've enjoyed it even more. All good things come to an end, and I guess this is our time. Look, a week and a half after we wrap up, Mike will be back on with another show (with Wingo) and it's going to be really good. It won't be exactly the same, but it will be really good. Hopefully people will like that too and then at some point I'll be back. So we'll still, in other ways, hopefully be part of people's morning routines.

You sit in a room behind a microphone for all these years and you don't necessarily have a full understanding of all the people that are out there, you know? To have heard from as many people inside and outside the world of sports, in the business and people all over the country, it has been very meaningful.

People keep using the word "bittersweet" and it is that. I do feel sad that it's coming to an end but much more than sad I feel really grateful that this happened. How many people have had an opportunity to do something that's this much fun for a living, for 18 years?

And Tiger?

He used to come on our show all the time. Mike once told him that walking a golf course is overrated, and we joked about that. I had a discrepancy in my golf group about how a Nassau should be scored, the calculation and the money. So I asked Tiger Woods on the air. Here we have the best golfer in the world and maybe the best that ever lived, and I'm asking him to settle this little dispute. He went along with all of that stupidity and has been great to us over the years.

Paul Moseley / TNS

ESPN Radio's Mike Greenberg, left, and Mike Golic broadcast "Mike and Mike In The Morning" at the Super Bowl in 2011.

ESPN Radio's Mike Greenberg, left, and Mike Golic broadcast "Mike and Mike In The Morning" at the Super Bowl in 2011.

(Paul Moseley / TNS)

Back to your final show … Johnny Carson had Bette Midler, David Letterman had the Foo Fighters. If you could have any band in the world serenade you, sing you guys off, who would you pick?

It would be friends of the show like Darius Rucker, Kenny Chesney and Bon Jovi. We've developed a relationship with them on the air. But in all honesty I don't think we're the kind of show that should have a band to play us out.

I've always said we are a testament to the value of low expectations. We started out as two guys sitting in a room talking, and I think that would be an appropriate way for it to end. "Seinfeld" is my favorite TV show of all time, and while the finale has been much criticized, I do like that the very, very, very, end of the show was just them sitting in a room — in their case a jail cell — just talking. Doing exactly what the show had always been.

The conversation you guys had on air in September about the early days of the show was touching. You mentioned Golic offering to make you tea, what a kind gesture that was. And, of course, how you two would have formed the number 10.

Mike had been hosting the show for a while with Tony Bruno. Tony left, so they were bringing in different people to audition with him. I was not one of them. I was an anchor on ESPNews and was starting to anchor a little bit on 'SportsCenter' and was very excited about that. They asked me to fill in for a couple of days because they knew I had experience in radio from my days in Chicago. For those that don't know reading this in Chicago, I started out at The Score (WSCR-AM 670) in January of '92.

Mike and I had probably crossed paths in the hallway but we certainly didn't know each other. So I'm filling in and come in to meet Mike. It's 5 in the morning and he says: "Do you want some coffee?" And I actually said, "You know, I tend to drink tea." He said to me, "I can make you a pot of tea." I thought to myself, "What a nice guy this is." That was my first impression of him, and it proved to be 100 percent right. Mike is a lot of things. He's funny and opinionated, and at his core he's just a damn nice guy.

We went on the air and I could tell he could take to good-natured ribbing. He was much heavier than me. No two ways about it; he was a big man. I said to him, "You know, Mike, we're just kind of getting to know each other on the air. This is our first conversation ever." And I said, "If we stood next to each other, we would be the number 10." To his everlasting credit, he thought that was funny and so did I. We started laughing and never stopped.

Beautifully said. Tell me about your new show. The hope was to start it in January but now you're looking at the spring?

We're still so far away from it that it doesn't even feel like the time to talk about it now. Yes, there are a million plans in the making. One of the nice things about the delay, which is purely construction-related, is that it has given me time to reflect on the end of this show rather than on the beginning of a new one.

Like in sports, I've always said there should be a mandatory smelling-the-roses period. I'll give you a story. I was covering the Bulls in the early '90s and we're in the locker room in Phoenix.

They have just won the championship in a thrilling Game 6. It's their third in a row, and I'm in the locker room and there's champagne. Everyone is celebrating and I'm interviewing Jerry Krause and I said to Jerry, "How do you feel?" And he said, "Honestly? I feel behind. I feel like the entire league is ahead of us now. They've already begun their prep and my coaches and I haven't been able to." That's what he was saying five minutes after they won the championship, and I thought: You work your whole life to climb this mountain and when you get to the top of it, you shouldn't immediately be looking at the next mountain. I'm very grateful that I'm getting this time, and I'm going to enjoy it.

Will you see some Broadway shows or binge watch or read some read books?

We are formulating a plan for different ways that I will be working at ESPN during the down time. So I'll be working, but during my free time I do hope to write another book. I've written four books and have been a little blocked lately.

Fiction or non-fiction for your next book?

I have an idea for each but I won't have time to write both. Probably fiction because I enjoy that more, the writing of it. I have a thriller concept in mind.

What else should we know about the new show?

It was never going to be a solo vehicle. From its inception to when it was pitched to me and the moment that I agreed to do it, this was not going to be a solo show. I am absolutely thrilled we're able to get Beadle and Jalen and we're still fleshing out what the rest will be.

In my opinion there's no person, and certainly not me, who could do a solo show in the morning. I don't think we're in that place in television right now. I think people expect the pacing and the energy that can only come from a group of people. If you've watched "Mike and Mike'' over the years on television, you've seen that one of the biggest changes that we've made is in the number of people that are up there. I think that is necessary now.

What time of day will the show be?

Yeah, the show's going to be from 7-10 in the morning Eastern time, so 6-9 in Chicago. Then it will re-air on the West Coast. And it will be on Sirius XM.

Do you have a launch date in mind?

No, they are building a set for this. And that will take however long it will take. It will be spectacular once it's done. I'm ready to go today. I don't want to attach a date to it, but it will be here before we know it.